Staats Battle: N.C. State Guard Charged With Impaired Driving On New Year's Day

By Brian Swanson

Rob Kinnan – USA TODAY Sports

North Carolina State sophomore guard Staats Battle was arrested on New Year’s Day for impaired driving. Battle is a walk-on guard who may be better known for his humorous Halloween costume, a bearded costume of teammate Richard Howell, than his on-court performance.

Wolfpack head coach Mark Gottfried released the following statement in response to the event:

“We are aware of this unfortunate incident and have talked to Staats and his parents about it. Any further issue would result in his dismissal from the team.”

Battle has been a non-factor for N.C. State this season and has only played in seven games this year. In those seven games he is averaging less than 2 minutes on the floor.

Luckily no one was hurt as a result of Battle’s irresponsible actions, the only thing damaged was his reputation. Coach Gottfried will be less likely to use Battle in “garbage time” minutes, as he won’t want such a character representing his squad.

Battle has jeopardized his spot on the team and needs to keep his nose clean from here on out. He isn’t any significant presence on the team, and it would be nothing at all for Gottfried to move on and find another player to fill his role in practice.

Battle may have a name one would expect of a statistical producer, but on the contrary he is just filling a spot on the bench, and helping teammates in practice. Hopefully for his sake he can keep his spot on the roster, but due to his actions it doesn’t appear he cares too much about his status overall.